The National Center for Global Health and Medicine, one of the premier hospitals in Tokyo, has started requiring every single patient to sign an agreement to accept foreign-language interpretation fees.

Every. Single. Patient.

Regardless of whether you ever have or ever will need foreign-language interpretation. Regardless of whether you even speak any language other than Japanese.

And this is the only service fee they do this for. They don’t, for example, make you agree to a colonoscopy fee schedule when you get a vaccine, or make you agree to the price of a pacemaker when you get basic bloodwork.

It’s hard not to see this as part of the society-wide trend of problematizing the existence of foreigners in Japan. The point isn’t to inform the tiny minority of patients who need interpretation about a new fee. The point is to inform the vast majority of patients who _don’t_ need interpretation services about the ‘problem’ of foreigner-language speakers who do.

(Needless to say, if you do need interpretation services there’s almost certainly already an app on your phone that will be faster, cheaper, more convenient, and likely more accurate than calling some poor bilingual kid working a minimum-wage phone support job.)

#japan #antiforeignsentiment #日本人ファースト #foreignerinjapan #外国人 #外国人差別 #国立国際医療センター #NCGM